Bhairahawa Edge Kathmandu

Region No 4 Bhairahawa edged host Region No 3 Kathmandu by 16 runs at the TU Cricket Ground on Monday to top the Group B of the Shikhar Senior One-Day National Cricket Tournament.

Bhairahawa scored 180 in 48.4 overs and bowled out Kathmandu for 164 in 47.1 overs for a remarkable victory over a championship favorite team.

Bhairahawa was in trouble in both innings, but it showed resilience to cope with the star-studded Kathmandu team. Kathmandu was cruising toward victory till the 42nd over when it was 149/5 needing 32 runs in eight overs.

Young Rahul BK came to Bhairahawa’s rescue dismissing Gyanendra Malla, who was batting well on 44. With Gyanendra gone, the last year’s finalist sprang into life and enforced four run-outs to bring down the host to 156/9.

Raju Basnet tried to rescue Kathmandu hitting a six for his eight but was bowled by Vijay Thapa to give Bhairahawa a 16-run victory. Paresh Lohani (35) and Dipendra Chaudhary (24) had earlier added 46 runs for the second wicket establishing a foundation for Kathmandu. Basanta Regmi took three wickets for the winners.

Earlier, Bhairahawa elected to bat first – a decision that looked backfiring as it went down to 66/5 by the 26th over with Paras Khadka being the wrecker-in-chief. But Akash Gupta repaired the damage with a quickfire 44 of 34 balls including two sixes and three fours.

When Gupta was out in the 46th over, Bhairahawa was already 169/8 and Basanta Regmi added some late runs to accumulate a respectable total. Basanta got 15 while other contributors were Dipesh Khatri (28) and Antim Thapa (33).

Paras gave away 22 runs in 9.4 overs to claim five wickets and the man-of-the-match award while Raju Basnet and Sharad Vesawkar each took two wickets. Region No 2 Birgunj plays a do-or-die match against Region No 1 Biratnagar on Tuesday.